Defra report which shows ALL emissions strategies in London have failed and Mayors Age limit on Taxis is improper.
In 2013 Defra published a report following testing in London by the Environmental Research Group ( Kings College) of 100,000 vehicles in London which included 10,000 taxis.
Please see link for Defra report (a summary of this report in relation to taxis is at the bottom of this email)
http://uk-air.defra.gov.uk/reports/cat05/1307161149_130715_DefraRemoteSensingReport_Final.pdf
The report conclusively confirmed that the new Euro 5 taxis are creating MORE NO2 than the 15 year old taxis.
This merely re-confirmed what had been said in a previous report by the ERG at Kings which was submitted to Boris Johnson in 2010 and to which he referred to in his report to the Environmental Audit Committee in 2011.(BEFORE HE SCRAPPED THE 15 YEAR OLD TAXIS)
It shows that he has technical evidence proving that his policy of scrapping 15 year old taxi would not reduce pollution at all.
In fact as the charts below show a 1999 taxi (15 years old) fitted with a Diesel Particulate Filter is cleaner than the brand new taxis.
Much has been said before about the Mayor’s Air Quality Strategy which led to the imposition of an age limit of 15 years on London’s Taxis. It was stated by the Mayor that the age limit would rid the streets of the most polluting Taxis.
The age limit was seen by Taxi drivers to be unfair and many questioned the research and science behind the report. Many older drivers have been thrown into premature retirement, as last year over 4000 vehicles disappeared from London’s Taxi fleet. With no scrappage scheme compensation and unwilling to risk investing their savings on new vehicles they also found (because of the demise of LTI) rentals few and far between.
To add insult to injury, many of the retired vehicles appear to have been picked up for next to nothing, given new MOTs and have found their way back onto London’s streets, ferrying staff about for a London bus company. (As seen in a previous post).
Defra have now released a report which shows without doubt that the science behind the mayors initial report was flawed. The report uploaded on to the Defra website is of huge significance.
The report now shows that the Mayor’s Taxi Age Limit is improper and as far as exhaust emissions are concerned, older taxis are no worse than the new taxis. In fact the new TX4 taxis are shown to create more NO2.
The report from Defra also shows that ALL emission strategies in London have so far failed.
Below is an except from the report which deals specifically with Taxis:
4.3 London taxis
The locations of the central London survey sites at Aldersgate Street and Queen Victoria Street resulted in a large number of taxis (black cabs) being surveyed. Over 15,000 observations of taxis were made, the majority being LTI TX1, TXII, and TX4 models. As a result of the relatively large sample size, the emissions from taxis can be disaggregated in more detail than most other vehicle types.
Current TfL regulations stipulate that annual licences are only issued to taxis that are under 15 years old and meet Euro 3 emissions standards. This is achieved either by (a) operating a vehicle originally manufactured to Euro 3 standards (or later); (b) retro-fitting approved emissions reduction equipment; or (c) using an LPG conversion. The Mayor has also set out proposals to have a taxi capable of zero emission operation in regular use by 2020. Such a taxi would effectively address all taxi-related local emissions. LTI TX1 models (Nissan engines) were originally manufactured to Euro 2 emissions standards, whereas later LTI TXII models with Ford engines (introduced around 2002) were manufactured to Euro 3 emissions standards. LTI TX4 models with VM Motori engines (introduced around 2006) were originally built to Euro 4 standards, with a Euro 5 compliant version introduced in 2012. Other observed taxi types with much smaller sample sizes include the LTI FX, the Carbodies Metrocab, the Mercedes Vito 111 (Euro 4), and the Mercedes Vito 113 (Euro 5).